Beleaf it or not

Leaf, Charleston, SC

I may be odd but I find it endlessly fascinating to see what people take the trouble to write in the pavement. You see wet cement, no one is watching, you have a stick or a key, what shall you write?! How shall you leave your mark on this city for years to come.

Leaf. 

David, I love you!

King St., Charleston, S.C.

David, I love you!

Whoever you are.

Not sure where the cartoon characters fit in but someone loves David and timed their design to be visible last Saturday during the Farmer's Market. In case David slept in and missed it, I am the go between. Someone loves ya David!

I just went to the Gathering Cafe for dinner and had the most delicious bowl of Panang Chicken Curry. I am a very happy lady.

Concrete Thoughts

I always wanted to do this, Charleston, S.C.

I still have the best collection of sidewalk graffiti but check out this Awesome Wet Cement tumblr and send in your own. They haven't found all of mine yet ;).

In other news, I now have the International Film Channel and may never need to leave this room again.

Under Foot

Those Who Give Up Freedom For Security, Deserve Neither.

You know I did it. I am so fascinated by what people chose to write in wet cement I kept stumbling, tripping tourists and back tracking to take pictures of the pavement in San Francisco.


Buy More Drugs


Lower Haight Rocks


Goonies


It Could Not be Helped


Jesus Loves Bob ( I sent this one to my brother!)


Queer Love

Concrete Messages

Fielding Home for Funerals, Charleston, S.C.

Oddly, this is what is on the pavement in front of the funeral home.


This is on the pavement on upper King St.


All it means is that I spent way too much time reading the pavement.

Edit: Fielding Home for Funerals:

This facility, originally built in the late 1700s, was, and remains a stately mansion in the center of Charleston’s most celebrated historic district. It had been reduced to a low rent rooming house when Julius P.L. Fielding purchased it in 1928 and restored it to its original character. For two generations, it served as residence and principal location of the Funeral home. After several renovations and additions, including a spacious chapel, it is now a modern funeral establishment, while maintaining its eighteenth century character.

Faith, Truth, Power

Duncan St., Charleston, S.C.

Faith, Truth, Power. Not the worst thing you could write in cement.

Things to write in cement

Cawabanga Dude! Warren st., Charleston, S.C.

People after my own heart. The Worth1000 community called for submissions. Category? Things to write in cement.

Some of the entries:

Now Approaching Mafia Burial Ground...
You wanted concrete evidence ...!?!
This building is situated on the location of a former construction site
Dance here to win awesome prizes!
Help! I'm trapped in the concrete mixer!
If you continue to stand here, you will gain great wealth and fortune. Your life will be perfect. Have fun!
If you can read this...Your blocking the sidewalk!
This cement is dry
My heart is like cement; at first soft as butter, then hardened by years of misery and monotony..
HERE LIES JIMMY HOFFA. 1913-2009
Made in China.
Bending your neck to glance down at something strains your muscles and can cause permanent damage to your spine.
STOP! I'm glad that you stopped to read this. There are thieves in the bushes planning to steal your wallet.
I came, I saw, I stood, I thought, I wrote, I admired, I conquered, I went.

Top 10 Sidewalk Graffiti Art Images in Charleston, SC

Wow! Wet Cement
Someone else delighted in it as much as I do!


I Spoke Your Name For Many Days
I loved this one. I imagined an abandoned lover grieving. A reader recognized it as a fragment of a Phish song.

TWIST

I spoke your name for many days
Pronouncing it in several ways
And moving letters all around

And when you heard the end result
I told you it was not my fault

If you were here more of the day
It wouldn't twist around that way


Remember What You Saw, What You Heard
Message to the tourists?
Cumberland St., Charleston, SC


Don't Look Down On Me
If we hadn't, we wouldn't have seen it.
Vanderhorst St., Charleston, SC


Is This Legal?
They were probably talking about writing in cement but the cigarette in the picture added a new twist.
This one is across from the East Bay, Harris Teeter next to the liquor store.


I Love The Friends That We Have Gathered On This Thin Raft
This was an ambitious project on Pitt St. and has since been destroyed. Sob.
Pitt St., Charleston, SC

Some call it heavenly in its brilliance.
Others, mean and rueful of the Western dream.
I love the friends I have gathered together on this thin raft.
We have constructed pyramids in honor of our escaping.
This is the land where the Pharaoh died.
Jim Morrison, The Wasp


Thanks Uncle Willie
What did Uncle Willie do? Pay for the cement drive?
Elizabeth St., Charleston, SC



No Need to Stress If You Ship UPS
This is a cement graffiti masterpiece. Who loves a company enough to create this? Duncan St., Charleston, SC


Enjoy Being
Philosophy on Smith St.
Smith St., Charleston, SC


Love Is For All. You And Me
Wisdom found on Radcliffe
Radcliffe St., Charleston, SC

It was almost impossible to pick ten favorites. I keep finding new ones and odds are I've glanced down and found your name claiming a square of lowcountry sidewalk real estate.

What makes people write these things? Do they have something clever in mind ready to pounce when they spot wet cement? It isn't as easy as you would think. The cement must be at the right consistency and the artist quick and discreet. Not that I would know.

Charleston has clearly been home to a wealth of creative cement artists and philosophers. Thanks to all of you who have blogged the sidewalks in your cities, travels and sent me copies of pavement treasure finds.

It's not the end of course. I keep finding new ones to add to my collection. Meanwhile, walk on. Look down once and awhile!


The End.
East Bay St., Charleston, SC.